Kitchen Un-Confidential
Thursday, May 8th, 2008As part of my job, I recently had the opportunity to go inside the kitchens of 25 NYC area restaurants and bakeries. For a home cook and food nut, getting access to a restaurant kitchen was a chance to see how the big boys play; I inspected everything- the kinds of spices they used, the cookware, the appliances and of course the ingredients. Two highlights of the experience were meeting Anita Lo, the renowned chef who defeated Mario Batali on Iron Chef America, and tasting the slow roasted pork at South Gate in Manhattan. To die for. Brined overnight, the flavor had penetrated the meat, making it insanely tender and juicy with a salty crust (pardon me while I wipe the drool from my mouth). When I wasn’t stuffing my face, I also made a few general observations:
1. Chefs work hard. I mean really hard. They put in endless hours while standing all day, often in cramped, windowless kitchens. Which brings me to my second observation…
2. Restaurant kitchens (especially in Manhattan), are often incredibly small. We could barely fit our camera crew at times, and I wondered what it must have been like to do a 14-hour shift in a hot, sweaty space that was more cell than kitchen.
3. Chef personalities vary wildly. Some were relaxed and easygoing- others gave the impression they could go all Gordon Ramsay at any moment. I wouldn’t want to be a line cook when a knife-wielding chef throws a hissy fit.
4. Most kitchens were surprisingly clean (although without naming names, I’ll just say that one place was lucky we weren’t doing a Dateline NBC expose on food cleanliness- yuck). The gold standard for immaculate had to be the kitchen at La Tulipe Desserts in Mt. Kisco. If there was ever a place where you could eat off the floor, this was it. Maarten Steenman (great guy!) is the owner and pastry chef, and I think he cleaned up every stray crumb that hit the counter. I have a suspicion many pastry chefs are similarly fastidious in nature. There’s an exactness and attention to detail in their work that naturally translates into a certain anal-retentiveness and need for an orderly kitchen.
5. The Westchester locations were some of my favorites. I missed the Anna Shea Chocolates shoot, but I loved the neighborhood friendliness of Riviera Bakehouse in Ardsley, and the stunning desserts at La Tulipe blew me away. Like works of art, they looked almost too beautiful to eat. If you want to treat yourself and your waistline, pay them a visit.
It was quite a trip visiting all these great food spots and meeting the people who worked there. And if you’re wondering, yes, I sampled the food everywhere we went. Hey, it’s all part of the job.